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Stoa
and ) |Reported=1912 |Researchers=Jaroslav Mareš }} The stoa is a cryptid reported from the Kurupira tepui, on the border of and , described by the Waiká people as an animal resembling a theropod dinosaur such as Carnotaurus. Shuker, Karl P. N. ShukerNature: THE STOA, THE SUWA, AND THE WASHORIWE – A TRIO OF PREHISTORIC SURVIVORS FROM THE REAL 'LOST WORLD'? karlshuker.blogspot.com 17 June 2019 Description The Waiká people described the stoa to Jaroslav Mareš as a 25' long, exclusively bipedal reptile superficially resembling a giant caiman. Its front limbs are said to be too short for it to walk quadrupedally, but its hind limbs are gigantic, and its jaws are said to be much shorter than a caiman's, whilst it's head is taller. It is also described as having a pair of horns above its eyes, which are likened to those of a horned frog (Ceratophyrs spp.). Its skin is covered in "hard, non-overlapping, tubercular scales," and it's colouration is also similar to that of a horned frog ("green or golden-brown with darker markings"). The stoa is said to principally feed on tapirs and capybaras, ambushing its prey by waiting in the bush near riverbanks. Above all else, the Waiká emphasised the fact that, if one is chased by a stoa, there is no hope of escape. Sightings Undated A gold prospector met by Jaroslav Mareš, known by the pseudonym Reginald Riggs, was told by a Waiká tribesman named Retewa that a party of Waiká hunters once accidentally wandered into a stoa which was hunting for prey in the forest. The hunters' arrows failed to penetrate the skin of the stoa, which killed several of the men before the others fled. Theories As first noted by Mareš, the description of the stoa is exceptionally reminiscent of the 30' long prehistoric abelisaurid Carnotaurus, known from Late Cretaceous South America. Other than the general resemblance in body form to the stoa, its very well-preserved fossils show that this theropod dinosaur had a pair of pointed horns above its eyes, and hard non-overlapping scales covering its body, also just like the stoa. It also had a rather flatter, taller head than some other theropods. All this leads Mareš to speculate on the possibility of Carnotaurus surviving the Cretaceous and persisting on the isolated Kurupira tepui. Some missionaries interviewed by Mareš believed that the stoa was simply a part of Waiká myth, with no basis in reality. Supporting the possibility is the fact that, although the Waiká firmly believe in the stoa, it is totally absent from the folklore of Indians living further away from Kurupira. To explain this, Mareš has suggested that, if the stoa is real, it may be normally confined to the plateau of the tepui itself, only wandering down to the ground very rarely via cracks or fractures, giving the only the Indians living closest to the tepui knowledge of it. In popular culture Do you think the exists? If so, what do you think the is? Myth, folklore, hoax, or otherwise made-up (inc. based on fossils) Mistaken identity Living theropod dinosaur New reptile species *Percy Fawcett described the stoa to Arthur Conan Doyle, who included it in The Lost World in the form of a living Megalosaurus, which is depicted as a frog-like creature which moved like a kangaroo. The presence of the stoa in The Lost World and the absence of English-language records of its actual cryptozoological existence until Karl Shuker's 4 August 2016 ShukerNature post led some commentators to describe the stoa as a totally fictional invention of Conan Doyle's. Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:South America Category:Brazil Category:Venezuela Category:Amazon dragons Category:Bipedal reptiles Category:Theory: Lazarus taxon - Dinosaur